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“At rejse er at leve” or “To travel is to live” as renowned author H. C. Andersen once said.
Travel is one of the most eye-opening life experiences that you can have in this world, and solo travel is even more so. Solo travel teaches you everything from practical applications like how to budget and to keep calm in an emergency, to soul-enriching things like meeting interesting new people from all walks of life, and building a meaningful relationship with yourself.
Post pandemic has seen a resurgence of people getting out of their homes to try and soak up everything they can before the next inevitable global emergency. Solo travel is where it’s at. From boundless independence to the time for self-reflection that solo travel allows you, it is both exhilarating and enlightening, no matter your age.
We asked our readers about their experiences with solo travel, the perception that people had of them as solo travellers, and both their good and bad experiences. Maybe their responses will serve as the last push that you need to get out on your own and explore the world. Here’s what they had to say.
Solo Travel –– Weird or Wonderful?
As children, the most wonderful time of the year was summer vacations, getting to meet your cousins, friends, and extended family on a trip, or if you were lucky, going abroad for a ‘foreign vacation’.
For me, having a flight attendant for a mom paid off. My dad and I got to accompany her on her flights to pretty much anywhere in the world, as long as we had a valid visa. But my first time travelling solo was when I left home at 16 for a youth exchange program to Denmark. For almost a year I explored the strange country I’d chosen to call home and get accustomed to the cultures and new people I’d met; most of whom assumed I was Mexican.
Divisha Bhatia who started travelling solo at the young age of 15, says that people thought she was crazy, or she got the usual “Hippie banne ke zayada hi shauk hain” (You just want to try to pretend and be a hippie, that’s all).
Whereas for 21-year-old Pragya Sikka, solo travelling gives her two different types of perceptions. One from strangers, who believe she is content and happy with her own company. The other is from her parents who believe that travelling solo is sad since she’s alone all the time. Having to experience that rollercoaster of emotions all by yourself, the happy, sad, angry, and grateful moments and having to keep it all inside you the whole time. She says both perceptions are right, that solo travel has made her vulnerable and soft, rather than cynical and hard. Relying on the kindness of strangers has changed her perception of the world.
Nishant Thakur had a slightly different experience on his first solo trip to Varanasi, where his hostel-mates thought of him as “A young kid trying to figure out things on their own who is interested in poetry and biryani more than anything else.”
Gendered Differences In Travelling Solo
For those of us brought up as women, we run through mental safety checklists every time we do so much as leave the house. With solo travelling, we find that we must be a little less trusting of people trying to help us along with being extra vigilant with double checking the locks on our doors just one of many unfortunately necessary safety measures.
We can even see the differences in the way we travel in our responses. 80% of our respondents identify as she/her and 20% identify as he/him. When asked what their worst solo travel experience was, the women’s answers ranged from being followed to being anxious about being able to manage on their own, whereas the men found having to pay a little extra for their travel and food inconvenient.
Solo traveller Priyanshi Vaishnav adds, “I had to travel from Kerala to Coimbatore. My stay in Kerala was already hectic and I didn’t realise, that the bus travel to Coimbatore would prove to be so exhausting for me. I wish I had planned that one better in my itinerary.”
We know that as men and women we do not stand on equal footing. Nonetheless, the women in our responses are confident, capable, and independent solo travellers who have managed to work through their worst experiences and go on more and more trips on their own. They give us the inspiration we need to pack up our bags and head out the door to wherever we want to go, whether it is to the hills of Himachal Pradesh or to the backwaters of Kerala.
Location, Location, Location
Our responders have been everywhere, from Varanasi to Pondicherry, and even on international trips to Oslo, Copenhagen, and Berlin. An avid traveller, responder Roshni says, “I started with day trips from whichever city I lived in, from the age of 23!”
Pragya Sikka went on a workation to Bangalore that turned into a solo trip when she suddenly quit her job for her mental health. Similarly, Ameeshi went for a solo workation to Jhimi in Himachal Pradesh, but adds, “I couldn’t get myself to work too much though, if you can believe that!”
So there we have it! We hope our young Indian respondents have been able to convince you to finally book those tickets you’ve been agonising over. While travelling solo has its pros and cons, it has been an overwhelmingly positive experience for our small sample group. Where are you going to go first?
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